1. Incorporation by Reference
U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,702, filed on Jan. 23, 1998, entitled BISTABLE SPRING CONSTRUCTION FOR A STENT AND OTHER MEDICAL APPARATUS, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/875,718, filed on Sep. 19, 2007, entitled DEFORMABLE LUMEN SUPPORT DEVICES AND METHODS OF USE, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/391,940, filed on Mar. 29, 2006, entitled “FRACTURE-RESISTANT HELICAL STENT INCORPORATING BISTABLE CELLS AND METHODS OF USE,” which are attached hereto as Exhibit A, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties as if fully set forth herein.
2. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to stents, more particularly, to interconnections, connectors, and interconnects between adjacent, e.g. axially adjacent, stent segments.
It is known by persons skilled in the art that a stent positioned in blood vessels adjacent joints or bending planes of the body, such as a superficial femoral artery (SFA), can experience repeated and extreme axial loads or displacements in use. For this reason, some embodiments of the stents positioned within the SFA or other such locations preferably are axially resilient or springy, as opposed to being axially rigid. In some cases, coiled stents have been used in these locations, but such stents often do not deploy well or cover the vessel or passage wall well. It may be desirable to provide stents having improved performance in this environment.